Calms your nervous system

Acupuncture increases night time melatonin

Canadian researchers studied 18 adults suffering from anxiety and insomnia. The volunteers received acupuncture treatments for five weeks.

The study revealed that acupuncture increased the night time levels of the “sleep hormone” melatonin. At the end of the trial, anxiety levels were significantly lower and sleep efficiency had increased. Both sleep quality and sleep time had improved considerably.

Studies examining the brain using functional MRI discovered that Acupuncture retrains your brain to “switch off” the part of it responsible for anxiety and insomnia.

Effects of disrupted sleep, and why you should not delay the treatment

Cancer – 40% increased risk: large population studies showed that people who have less than 6 hours of sleep a night have 40% increased the risk of cancer vs people who sleep 7 or more hours. In another study, mice who had fragmented sleep developed tumours that were twice as large

Reproductive health:

Female: Women with sleep disorders are 3.7 times more likely to experience infertility. Shift work can lead to irregular menstrual cycle. Harvard University researchers have shown that shift workers had fewer eggs capable to develop into healthy embryos.

Alzeimers – Stanford University and Washington Medical School have shown that poor sleep increases the levels of two Alzheimer’s-associated proteins including amyloid beta and tau. Treating sleep disorders in older adults results in a delay of Alzheimer’s by years.

Obesity and Weight Gain – the reduced duration of sleep associated with weight gain. You are more hungry and more likely to binge eat when you did not get proper sleep.

Diabetes – perfectly healthy people who had sleep restricted to 4 hours a night had blood glucose similar to prediabetes

Effect on the immune system: prolonged sleep deprivation affects your immunity, but even one night of sleeplessness can obstruct your natural defence. Sleep deprivation may even hinder the effectiveness of vaccines.

Sex drive: lack of sleep and stress both decrease testosterone levels. Testosterone is important for sexual desire in both men and women. Disturbed sleep and sleep deprivation (classified as getting less than 7 hours of sleep a night) may lead to reduced sexual energy and sexual dysfunction.

Sleeping pills provide sedation, not sleep.

The quality of sleep that you have when you’re on sedation doesn’t have the same restorative properties of natural sleep.